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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/30746-h.zip b/30746-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6fc4cc0 --- /dev/null +++ b/30746-h.zip diff --git a/30746-h/30746-h.htm b/30746-h/30746-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9541960 --- /dev/null +++ b/30746-h/30746-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1344 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Last Straw, by William J. Smith + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- +body { + margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; background-color: #FFFFFF; +} + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; +} + +p { + margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; +} + +hr { + width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; +} + +.tr {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; margin-top: 5%; margin-bottom: 5%; padding: 2em; background-color: #f6f2f2; color: black; border: dotted black 1px;} + + +.center {text-align: center;} + +.p1 { font-size:xx-large; font-weight:bold; } + +/* Images */ +.figcenter { + margin: auto; + text-align: center; +} + +.figleft { + float: left; + clear: left; + margin-left: 0; + margin-bottom: 0em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-right: 0.25em; + padding: 0; + text-align: center; +} + + +/* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Straw, by William J. Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Last Straw + +Author: William J. Smith + +Illustrator: George Schelling + +Release Date: December 23, 2009 [EBook #30746] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST STRAW *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="tr"><p class="center">Transcriber's Note:</p> +<p class="center">This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction September 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.</p></div> +<p> </p> + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 600px;"> +<img src="images/image_001.jpg" width="600" height="444" alt="" title="" /> +</div> +<p> </p> +<h1>THE LAST STRAW</h1> +<p> </p> +<p class="center"> +Some hypotheses are rational—<br /> +if not logical—but,<br /> +by their nature,<br /> +aren't exactly open<br /> +to controlled experiment!<br /> +</p> +<p> </p> +<h2>by WILLIAM J. SMITH</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE SCHELLING</h3> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p><span class="p1">"T</span>here's absolutely nothing we can pin it down to with any real +certainty," Kessler said. "No mechanical defects that we're sure of, +no sabotage we can put our finger on, no murder or suicide schemes, +nothing! We've put that plane back together so perfectly that it could +almost fly again! We've got dossiers an inch thick on practically +everybody who was aboard, crew and passengers. We've done six months' +work and we don't have one single positive answer. The newspapers were +yelling about the number of insurance policies issued for the flight +but none of them looks really phony."</p> + +<p>He stood at the huge window of Senator Brogan's office, looking out at +the shimmering sunlight on one of Washington's green malls. Over the +treetops he could catch a glimpse of the Capitol dome.</p> + +<p>Brogan sat comfortably in the big chair behind his desk. "But weren't +there an unusually large number of policies issued?" he asked. His big +hands toyed with a little silver airplane propeller, a souvenir of his +long-standing interest in the problems of commercial aviation. "You +know," he went on, leaning forward on his elbows and replacing the +propeller neatly on the base of his fountain pen stand, "this is a +matter of interest to me in more than an official sense. Eileen +Bennett was one of my wife's best friends. She was on her way to +Washington to visit us after a stopover in New York."</p> + +<p>Kessler nodded. "I know that's one of the reasons you wanted to +compare notes." He stood with his back to the window now, a stocky man +with a jaw to match and short-cropped graying hair. "The newspapers +were quite right, of course. There were an unusually large number of +insurance policies issued for the flight but nearly all were for the +minimum amount."</p> + +<p>"What about Pearlow?"</p> + +<p>Kessler frowned. "Pearlow had reason to be nervous. You know he +survived a crash just three years ago. But anyway, the fact remains +that we've looked into the backgrounds of every one of those people. +None of them was facing any real financial difficulties!"</p> + +<p>"That sounds odd in itself," George Brogan said, smiling slightly.</p> + +<p>Kessler ran his hand over his hair and returned to sit in a leather +chair beside the senator's desk. He smiled in response. "I know it +sounds odd but it's true. Their troubles were all +run-of-the-mill—getting taxes paid, the mortgage, a new car, a +long-overdue raise in salary—that sort of thing. Nothing that anybody +in his right mind would kill or commit suicide over."</p> + +<p>Brogan lifted a bushy eyebrow in question. "Maybe you've put your +finger on it there?"</p> + +<p>Kessler ticked off his reply, holding up one hand. "One former mental +patient, pronounced cured ten years ago and apparently perfectly +normal; a well-established businessman; a used-car dealer; three +currently under psychoanalysis; a college girl twenty-one; a housewife +with four children; an injured veteran just out of service. None +showed any violent tendencies according to their doctors."</p> + +<p>"Any criminals?"</p> + +<p>Kessler regarded him wryly from beneath his eyebrows. "Don't kid me, +senator. I know you've done your own investigation on this. But to +answer your question: Evan Prewitt's your man—only one who could +qualify. Tried on a manslaughter charge for killing his brother-in-law +while they were out hunting. He said it was an accident and the jury +agreed. He was acquitted. True, he had one of the large insurance +policies, but then I'm sure you know Miss Bennett had one, too."</p> + +<p>The senator nodded. "I knew that. But I know very little of Eileen's +financial situation otherwise. Not," he added hastily, "that I would +for a moment suspect Eileen Bennett of harming a fly. She's one person +I could rule out. It would be just like her to fall down the steps +getting off the plane, but as for her planning her own death or anyone +else's, that's out of the question. She was much too scatterbrained. I +hope that's not speaking ill of the dead."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Kessler frowned. "You'll forgive me, senator, in that regard, if I +ask you a question? Miss Bennett didn't drink, did she?"</p> + +<p>"Eileen? Heavens, no! Oh, she'd have a drink to be sociable, but it +was usually a sherry and half the time she wouldn't finish that. I +don't suppose you were envisaging the possibility that she highjacked +the plane from four officers and two stewardesses and then wrecked +it?" This time he smiled the broad toothy smile that made him a +favorite with Washington news photographers.</p> + +<p>"Hardly. The thing is, I've gotten so I feel I knew every one of those +seventy-three people personally. You know, I've interviewed almost two +thousand friends and acquaintances of those people and I'm not quite +finished yet, just hoping I'll run across something that makes sense. +I could have told you Miss Bennett's habits with a glass of sherry, +that's why I was a little surprised."</p> + +<p>Senator Brogan shook his head. "Oh, no, I didn't mean to suggest +anything like that. It's just that Eileen was ... well, clumsy is an +unkind word ... unco-ordinated I guess, though she tried to make a +joke of it. She was always bumping into things, spilling her glass of +water and things like that, but not because she had been drinking too +much."</p> + +<p>"As for drinking," Kessler said, "there were quite a few real guzzlers +on the plane. I don't mean that actor, who was notorious. He'd just +lost a part because of his drinking and he was sober for a change. But +it's amazing what you'll turn up about respectable people when you +start investigating."</p> + +<p>"I'm very interested in that aspect, as you may know," Brogan said. +"We periodically get bills which would outlaw drinking aboard planes. +What are your ideas on that subject?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't mind a drink aboard a plane myself. Helps me relax. But +I have seen some pretty unpleasant things develop during a flight when +you get a nasty drunk riled up."</p> + +<p>"Did you find any suggestion of that?"</p> + +<p>"Not really. The plane took off from Chicago just after lunch time and +a good many of the people who got on there had had a drink or two, but +there wasn't really enough time to make trouble. The plane had hardly +cleared the runway. All the passengers, except one, had their seat +belts fastened."</p> + +<p>"Now there is something I didn't know! Who was this?"</p> + +<p>"Preston, a lawyer from New Jersey. You know how tentative any +reconstruction of events must be under the circumstances, but we're +pretty sure of this, especially since there was no fire. Preston +apparently broke a fingernail trying to fasten his seat belt and one +of the stewardesses had brought him a little first-aid kit. He had +torn open a Band-Aid and was trying to fasten it around his finger. +Obviously this was just before the crash."</p> + +<p>"But how do you know he did it with the seat belt?"</p> + +<p>"Guesswork, except that it wasn't fastened and we think maybe it just +got overlooked after he hurt himself."</p> + +<p>"Was he one of the drinkers?"</p> + +<p>"No, not at all. Never touched it. In point of fact, nobody was really +drunk at the time of the take-off. The flight engineer however had had +two drinks at lunch."</p> + +<p>Brogan raised his eyebrows. "You <i>were</i> thorough. You're sure?"</p> + +<p>Kessler nodded. "Brown was a problem drinker though it didn't seem to +interfere with his work. The two drinks are all he had that day so far +as we can determine. He showed up for lunch at a girl friend's +apartment with a black eye. Made some joke about walking into a door +and wouldn't tell her anything else about it. She gave him the drinks +at his request, and a big lunch, and put a little makeup on his eye +because he'd been pulled from a flight a few months before when he +showed up looking as though he'd been in a scrap."</p> + +<p>"How did he really get the black eye?"</p> + +<p>"There you've got me. Maybe he was telling his girl friend the truth. +He had an estranged wife, incidentally, but she hadn't seen him for +years. Good riddance, she said."</p> + +<p>Senator Brogan picked up the propeller again and rolled it +reflectively between his palms. He looked intently at Kessler. +"Nothing seems really conclusive, does it? You know some of the wild +rumors that have been going around about this crash?" Kessler nodded +and started to speak. Brogan held up his hand. "Let me finish. You +know and I know—or at least we think we do—that there's nothing to +most of these rumors. And I'm not even talking about the wilder ones, +like the little people from outer space who are knocking our airplanes +down without leaving a trace. You get three or four of these +unexplainable accidents and somebody is sure to come up with a really +crackpot idea. The general public will not be convinced that this sort +of thing can happen with no discoverable reason. Usually we have no +way of reconstructing what happened before the accident. Just a couple +of unintelligible remarks on the radio, as there were here, and then +everyone is dead, the plane is totally demolished, and witnesses on +the ground come up with ten different hysterical accounts—if there +are any witnesses at all!"</p> + +<p>"But this was a little different, after all, senator," Kessler +interjected.</p> + +<p>Brogan held up his hand again. "Just let me have my say. You know we +folks down here in Washington always have a lot to say and we hate +being interrupted." He smiled briefly. "This sort of thing has been +going on in aviation history for the last fifty years—these +unexplained accidents—and there's nothing especially new about this +last one. You're shaking your head, but let me continue. One of the +reasons they are now getting so much attention is that with the big +jets the loss of life is apt to be pretty appalling when an accident +does happen, but the actual number of accidents per flight—as you +well know—is far fewer than it used to be and has been going down +steadily over the years."</p> + +<p>Kessler, slumped deep in his chair, fingers arced together before him, +stared morosely but said nothing. "Secondly," Brogan went on, "it is +not true that these accidents are happening more to American planes +than foreign ones. Again it is chiefly that we are scheduling more and +more flights. On the law of averages we are doing very well. You know +how many crashes the foreign carriers have chalked up in the last +year. And just about the same proportion are these so-called +unexplainable crashes. It's not that they are unexplainable! It's +simply that we don't have the information that would explain them! The +very circumstances preclude that. Am I making any sense?"</p> + +<p>Kessler nodded. "Yes, senator, I suppose you are, but it doesn't make +me any happier. I want to find out why and stop them."</p> + +<p>"So do I, I assure you. But let me finish briefly. Among the other +wild rumors are suggestions that we are being sabotaged by foreign +agents or by their tools. Well now, I'd be the last one in the +world—you know my record—to deny the possibility of some folks doing +this if they thought they could get away with it. If I thought for one +moment—or if I thought that you thought for one moment—that there +was some international sabotage going on here, I'd say go on with your +investigation till you get the answer!"</p> + +<p>Brogan flung himself back dramatically in his big chair, throwing out +his arms. "Meanwhile, what are you accomplishing? You've spent—and I +happen to know this for a fact—almost a million dollars on this +investigation. By your own account you have personally talked to two +thousand people about it! You have kept this accident in the public +eye and given it far greater importance than it deserves—through no +malicious fault of your own, to be sure! But what have you got? +Nothing. Exactly what I came up with. Nothing. Tell me, for example, +where you got with the political possibilities of this thing. I know +you didn't overlook it!"</p> + +<p>Kessler smiled wearily. "Just about everything you say is true, +George. Only, you see, I would probably never have ended up running +this investigation if I were the sort of person that comes up with a +question mark for an answer. I said 'human error' in my report, but +that doesn't satisfy me. I want to know what human error. I don't +think anything happens without a reason. Somehow I feel that it's all +there, the answer, in those couple of million details we've pieced +together about the plane and the crew and the passengers and it's +staring me in the face if I could only see it."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you." Brogan raised his hand again in his imperious +gesture then dropped it to the desk. "No. I asked to have my say. Now +you have yours." He sat patiently.</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Kessler grinned. "Thanks, senator. As for the political sabotage +possibilities, you've undoubtedly seen a copy of my confidential +report. Three of the passengers had definite subversive connections in +the past. I know, I'm not trying to make much of this. Their +associations all date back to the 1930s and one of them was just a +girl flirting with a Communist fellow student, but we didn't want to +overlook any possibilities. Pearlow, on the other hand, was Russian +born. He's the one who barely survived another airline crash three +years ago."</p> + +<p>"Pearlow was perfectly loyal. Just an ironic coincidence, that's all. +I know the papers tried to make something out of it but I find it hard +to believe that you took it seriously. As for Stepowski, he testified +openly about his past here in Washington five years ago."</p> + +<p>"I know. I even know that Stepowski's favorite television program was +'I Led Three Lives.' I tell you there's very little I don't know about +anybody who was aboard, with one possible exception."</p> + +<p>Brogan was alert. "Who's this?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's no great mystery, senator. Robert J. Spencer, of Keokuk, +Iowa. We know quite a bit about him, actually, but it's all third +hand. He was a retired court stenographer, seventy-three years old, +going to New York for his sister's funeral at the time of the crash. +He boarded the plane at Chicago. He took a train to Chicago because he +didn't like to fly, then he got sick there, apparently from some +mushrooms he picked at home and had for lunch before he left. He had +to lay over in Chicago for a day and then he got on the plane at the +last minute so he wouldn't miss the funeral."</p> + +<p>"Sounds to me as though you knew everything about him."</p> + +<p>"Funny thing, though," said Kessler, "I have yet to speak to a single +person who ever exchanged ten words with Robert J. Spencer. He lived +alone, a complete recluse. Neighbors never saw him. Probably his +sister would have been able to tell me something about him but she's +dead. Actually, while I'm here in Washington I'm going to stop by and +see an old acquaintance of his, a Miss Valeria Schmitt. They worked +together as court stenographers in Iowa City more than twenty-five +years ago. They were engaged but they never married. She moved here +during World War II and they never saw much of each other after that." +He shrugged. "I know it's a long shot, but I don't want to miss a +chance."</p> + +<p>Senator Brogan shook his head, smiling. "I have to admire you, +Kessler. But may I express some little reservation? Do you really +think looking up an acquaintance of Mr. Spencer's from twenty-five +years ago is going to help materially in solving the mystery of a +plane crash that occurred just last February? Or that the taxpayers +could be very happy at this sort of expenditure of their money?"</p> + +<p>Kessler flushed darkly and leaned forward in his chair, clasping his +hands. "Senator," he said, his voice cracking a little, "the taxpayers +are not spending a cent currently on this investigation. My staff has +been dismissed or returned to their regular duties. I went off the +payroll three weeks ago. My final report has been submitted. I'm doing +this at my own expense because I feel that I have to. I'm not +satisfied. There has to be an answer!"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Brogan turned the emotion away from himself with professional skill. +"Bob, look," he said, addressing Kessler by his given name for the +first time during their interview, "I'm not criticizing you personally +for a second. And that's not why I asked you to stop by. I asked you +to come over and see me as a favor. You're not working for me and I +don't pretend to be in any position of authority as far as your +investigation goes. I asked you here because I'm deeply concerned +myself about these accidents and I wanted to know if you could +enlighten me in any way. May I say one personal thing though? Aren't +you getting emotionally involved in this?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I'm emotionally involved!" Kessler burst out. "I'm sorry, +George." He passed his hand over his face and went on in a lower +voice. "It's just that I've been eating, breathing, sleeping, dreaming +this thing for the last six months. I feel as though I knew everyone +of those seventy-three people personally. The Patterson girl, who +looked as though she might be going to have a little good luck for a +change. I even know that the pilot nicked himself shaving that +morning. His friends called him Mike even though his name was Edward. +He had a fight with his wife the night before. She wanted to eat out +and he wanted to stay home. He was working with this crew for the +first time though they all knew each other very well."</p> + +<p>"Really?" Brogan perked up. "I suppose I knew that. Is it possibly +significant?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly, possibly. Everything is possibly significant but nothing +really adds up. The routines were all standard, the four men were all +vets. Aside from the pilot they had all worked together for years, off +and on."</p> + +<p>"Still, couldn't wires have gotten crossed as a result of some +misunderstanding with a new pilot aboard?"</p> + +<p>"Sure they could. What with the flight engineer being a souse and the +pilot new to the crew and the co-pilot just back after a two-month +layoff because of a ski accident. 'Human error,' that's what I said."</p> + +<p>"Ski accident? I thought it was the stewardess that had the ski +accident? I'm not going to trip you up in your own bailiwick now, am +I?"</p> + +<p>"Stewardess?" Kessler frowned. "You must be mistaken, senator."</p> + +<p>"I felt quite sure," Brogan said musingly.</p> + +<p>"I know your reputation for a fact, senator," Kessler said +uncomfortably, "but a stewardess with a ski accident. Oh! Oh, yes. +But not recent. That was Miss Sosnak, but it was almost a year before. +The newspaper accounts got garbled. Both she and the other stewardess, +Miss Prentiss, were ski enthusiasts. They were thinking about spending +the weekend at Stowe after they got to New York, even though they had +both broken ankles previously. Their friends in San Francisco were +joking with them about it before they left. They gave Miss Sosnak a +doll with a cast on its leg as a gag. The doll was found in the +wreckage. Apparently Miss Sosnak had given it to the little girl who +was killed on the flight, Barbara Patterson, who actually had a cast +on her leg at the time. She had fallen and hurt herself a few days +before."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>A buzzer on Senator Brogan's desk hummed two short discreet hums. +Brogan made no attempt to answer it. He stood and came around the +desk, putting his hand on Kessler's shoulder. "Don't get up just yet," +he said. "My secretary buzzes me every fifteen minutes in case I want +to show my constituents how busy I am. If there's anyone waiting, let +them wait. There's just a little bit more I'd like to say." He sat in +the wide embrasure of the window and leaned forward on a crossed knee. +He looked the picture of negligence but he was obviously pausing to +choose his words with care. Kessler shifted his chair to face him.</p> + +<p>"I won't mince words," Brogan said, "because I think we understand +each other. We always have. Thanks to your splendid investigation, and +my only little efforts perhaps, we know more about the circumstances +of this crash than any other in aviation history. I had exactly your +feeling that the answer ought to be there. But I don't see it and you +don't see it. We know absolutely everything but one thing. We don't +know what caused it. And we're never going to know that. I really +think you are doing the aviation industry, yes and the country itself, +a real injury by going on. I won't say what I think you're doing to +yourself because it will sound like a sentimental appeal and you've +known me too long not to know I'm pretty hard-headed."</p> + +<p>"The investigation is over," Kessler said sullenly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know, officially, but you've just told me you're going on with +it personally."</p> + +<p>"It's one last remote chance."</p> + +<p>"Well, tell me this, Bob, if this last remote chance doesn't work out, +will you call it quits and not start in on another last remote chance? +Will you and Margaret get on up to that place of yours in Maine and +take a good long vacation?"</p> + +<p>Kessler smiled wryly. "Margaret has ideas of her own along that line. +She's followed through on this with me all the way but she came down +to Washington to meet me today and she says she's going to drag me off +when I'm through here."</p> + +<p>Brogan smiled his famous smile. "Good girl, Margaret. If she's here +and has a leash on you, I know I don't have anything to worry about. +There's nothing I admire more than a woman who has a mind and uses it. +I'll tell you something else," he said, standing and permitting +Kessler to rise this time. "I was truly sorry about Eileen Bennett's +death on this plane, but Eileen was getting along like me. Sarah +Pollitt's was the really tragic case, to have accomplished so much so +young and with that fearful handicap! From childhood, too, wasn't it?"</p> + +<div class="figleft" style="width: 300px;"> +<img src="images/image_002.jpg" width="300" height="831" alt="" title="" /> +</div> + +<p>"Actually, she was about seventeen. Someone threw a firecracker in a +car in which she was riding, but she could see partially with one +eye."</p> + +<p>Brogan nodded. "But a beautiful woman, for all that. And then to have +achieved so much. I understand nothing about chemistry but I know her +international repute. She had just become head of the chemistry +department at Wellesley, hadn't she?"</p> + +<p>"Radcliffe."</p> + +<p>Brogan laughed loudly. "I might have known I couldn't trip you up. But +tell me this," he added slyly, "did you know that Dr. Pollitt had once +been a good friend of Bergmann?"</p> + +<p>"Our former Commie on the plane? Yes, as a matter of fact, we came +across that quite accidentally. You did a good job, senator."</p> + +<p>"Well, you know we have some sources not generally accessible."</p> + +<p>"Then you undoubtedly found out that though Sarah Pollitt and friend +Bergmann knew each other well at one time she dropped him like a hot +cake when he suggested she do a little undercover work for the +Commies. Their being on the same plane was the sheerest coincidence."</p> + +<p>Brogan stood with his hand on the door with led to the corridor. He +nodded. "That was a little hard to take, wasn't it? We really thought +we had something there for a while." He sighed. "It's like the whole +thing, Bob, irrational and unexplainable. And believe me, I hope I +haven't sounded critical of the job you did. I hope we can call on you +whenever we need really expert advice?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, senator, though I don't feel much like an expert on +anything right now."</p> + +<p>"You did your best, Bob." He patted him on the shoulder in farewell.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<p>Kessler walked down a long marble corridor to a rotunda. His wife +waved to him from across a staircase. She looked pert and cool and +girlish in her ice-blue suit and perky hat. "Here, darling! Oh, you +look so discouraged! Did George give you a hard time? He can be a +brute when he wants to."</p> + +<p>"Not really. He thinks I ought to call it quits."</p> + +<p>"And don't you think so, dear?" she asked, taking his arm as they +started down the stairs.</p> + +<p>"Who me?" He grinned with sudden boyishness. "You know me. Never say +die! If I thought we ought to give it up would I be trying to find +this old bag Valeria Schmitt or whatever her name is? Brogan was +right, that's just about as farfetched a notion as has come down the +pike in a long time."</p> + +<p>"Well, it may be farfetched, but she's not an old bag. I called her to +make sure she'd be at home. I didn't know how long you'd take in +there. She was very excited that you were coming to see her."</p> + +<p>"Did she know who I was?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, even aside from the letters. She's been following the +investigation very carefully. She didn't seem to think it was at all +curious that you wanted to see her because she knew someone +twenty-five years ago."</p> + +<p>Kessler laughed as they stepped out into the hot sunlight. "Well, if +she's not a bag she's a bat. The more I think about it the crazier it +seems. Suppose we get it over with now and start for Maine tonight. +We'll be all set to go."</p> + +<p>"Good! Good! That's the way I like to hear you talk. We'll make it a +second honeymoon."</p> + +<p>Margaret was still musing dreamily when they finally got to the car +and started off in the direction of Silver Spring, where Valeria +Schmitt lived in maiden retirement. "It will be just wonderful, dear," +she said and then sighed. "Oh, but it reminds me of those poor +Valentes, going off on their honeymoon."</p> + +<p>"Now, now. I'm the one who's supposed to be obsessed with the crash, +not you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, but that was so sad. He was so handsome. And she was a pretty +little thing, too, if you could tell from the wedding pictures. And +then having postponed the wedding twice, too! It seems just like some +fate was dogging them."</p> + +<p>Kessler chuckled. "I don't think mumps really qualifies as an evil +fate."</p> + +<p>"No, but can you imagine! First him and then her! If it had been only +one or the other they would both be alive and happy today."</p> + +<p>"Alive anyway. I talked to some of his friends who suggested he was a +mean one even before he had mumps." He smiled at his wife. "Even if he +was good-looking. And now will you look out for Miss Schmitt's number +before I pile us up and we miss out on our second honeymoon?"</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Miss Schmitt proved to look as well as sound much younger than Kessler +knew her to be, a bright and plump little woman with very very blond +hair tightly curled. Margaret had come along into her little apartment +without much urging. Miss Schmitt had apparently been expecting both +of them because she had three flower-painted glasses out for lemonade.</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'm old-fashioned," she was saying cheerfully before they +were even settled, "but I don't hold by cocktails. Nothing more +cooling than good old lemonade. Real lemons, too, not this bottled +stuff. You know what they say—you can take them out of the country +but you can't take the country out of them!" She laughed breathlessly. +"I've been living in the big city for twenty-five years now but I'm +still an Ioway girl. Get back almost every year, too, still perfectly +at home there. I'll be sitting out on the veranda next month drinking +lemonade and shooing flies like I'd never been away!" She laughed her +breathless laugh again.</p> + +<p>Margaret was obviously enjoying herself as much as Valeria Schmitt. +Even Kessler was relaxed now, leaning back in the choice chair by the +window with his collar pulled open. His search <i>had</i> been a neurotic +one, he decided, as he listened to Miss Schmitt's pleasant chatter. He +realized he would learn nothing here, but now he was not angry even +with himself.</p> + +<p>Miss Schmitt had taken the first opportunity to explain that she was a +lot younger than her old boy friend, who had died in the crash at the +age of seventy-three. "Of course my family were against Bob Spencer +for that reason, too. He was almost fifteen years older than me." +Kessler suppressed a smile. He knew the difference in age was more +like ten years, but Miss Schmitt was secure in her blond, plump good +cheer. "It's a little too much," she went on, "fifteen years, but then +we never really did hit it off. Never really broke off, either." She +held up her hand, displaying a ring. "See. Just got it out a few +months ago. Haven't worn it for I don't know how many years. When I +left Iowa City—"</p> + +<p>"I thought it was Keokuk?" Margaret interrupted. She was perfectly at +home with Valeria as she sipped her lemonade.</p> + +<p>"No, honey." It was girl-talk now and Kessler was happy to let it go +on, feeling suddenly very tired. "We worked together as stenographers +in Iowa City. I was from right near there, but Bob was from Keokuk. +That's where he retired to. Anyway I got this job in Washington during +the war—World War II, that is—and I went back pretty often and saw +Bob but I was young and foolish at the time and kept putting off and +putting off the wedding and then it just never did happen. I offered +Bob his ring back but he wouldn't hear of it. Said maybe it would +still work out for us. Course by this time I knew it never would."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm so sorry." Kessler caught the note of real sincerity in +Margaret's voice. "That seems too bad."</p> + +<p>"Oh, why be sorry?" Valeria asked gaily. "I'm not. Bob was real sweet +in his way but he was a real stick-in-the-mud even when I first met +him."</p> + +<p>"I understand he was actually a recluse in his later years," Kessler +said.</p> + +<p>"Later years! Lord, he was a recluse when he was thirty-five. Worried +about everything. I never regret it. My friends used to say I was +snapping him out of it but I could never see much sign of it. Wore +gloves all the time to protect his hands and so he wouldn't get any +germs. It must have been the lemonade I was making a little while +ago, Mrs. Kessler, when you called, reminded me of one time when he +was visiting me back in Iowa. Just like I said, we were sitting on the +veranda drinking lemonade I do believe and swatting flies and Bob was +laughing and talking along with everyone else. Well, he was in a +rocker just like this one and I gave him the fly swatter because he +was laughing at me and I said, 'O.K., mister, you go ahead and try to +hit one if you're so smart.' And he gave a great big swing, laughing, +and that rocker went right over the edge of the veranda!" She laughed +her breathless laugh till she had to dab at her eyes.</p> + +<p>Kessler and Margaret smiled at her innocent memories. Kessler +suppressed a yawn. "Oh, my," Margaret said, "the poor man! How +embarrassing if he was that shy."</p> + +<p>Miss Schmitt examined her lacy handkerchief in sadly smiling +recollection. "I shouldn't laugh now," she said, "but it was so funny. +He didn't think so, of course! He stomped right out of the yard +without a word. I wouldn't have thought it was funny then if I'd known +how bad he hurt himself. He was laid up for about three weeks. I guess +that was the beginning of the end for us. Bob said every time he went +out something terrible happened to him. Poor fellow. He was right at +that. Just a bad luck artist."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Miss Schmitt was prepared to reminisce indefinitely. Kessler decided +he had better come to the point. "I don't suppose, Miss Schmitt," he +asked, "that you and Mr. Spencer ever discussed politics?"</p> + +<p>She shrugged. "Why, yes, I guess we did a little, being among +politicians in court and all. We were both good solid Republicans +though, so we didn't have much to say back in those days. I voted for +Roosevelt in 1940 but Bob didn't mind."</p> + +<p>"This may sound farfetched, Miss Schmitt, but to your knowledge was +Mr. Spencer ever interested in Communism?"</p> + +<p>"Bob?" she asked incredulously. "Bob interested in Communism? We +didn't even know what Communism was out there. Never! You can count +that out, mister."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure we can," Kessler said. "Did he drink?"</p> + +<p>"Not a drop! I wouldn't have put up with that myself."</p> + +<p>"Would you ever have thought he was suicidally inclined?"</p> + +<p>She thought about this one. "You mean he might have put a bomb on the +plane? Like that fellow did a few years ago?" She shook her head +slowly. "I can't believe Bob would kill anybody else just to kill +himself. What would be the point?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. He left no one behind him. Didn't even take out an insurance +policy. But, of course, people sometimes do crazy things."</p> + +<p>Miss Schmitt's plump little face was silent and reflective. "Bob was +an odd one. And, of course, I haven't seen him for years but I got a +Christmas card and a little note every single year and he always +seemed perfectly sane to me. As for killing himself or anybody else, +I'd say he was much too timid a man for that. God forgive me if I'm +being cruel to an old friend who's gone now, but he was afraid to step +outside the house. I don't know how he got to work. He was always +getting sick or getting hurt and staying home for weeks. I think he +welcomed sickness just so he could hide at home safe." There were +tears of another sort in Miss Schmitt's eyes now. Kessler thought he +detected a brightness in his wife's eyes. "No," Miss Schmitt said, +"Bob was afraid of life. Just plumb scared." She refused to let the +tears flow. "Oh, but I'm being a terrible hostess! I have so few +visitors now. How about some more lemonade?"</p> + +<p>Margaret flicked a glance at her husband and gave him the floor. +"You've been a wonderful hostess," Kessler said, rising, "and I want +to thank you for being good enough to talk to us."</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm afraid I haven't been much help," she said, rising to +flutter over the glasses.</p> + +<p>"That's not your fault," Kessler said. "As you know, we haven't come +up with an answer on this investigation, but at least they can't say I +didn't try."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>Miss Schmitt waved to them from the window of her apartment as they +got in their car. "She was sweet, you know," Margaret murmured as she +waved back gaily. "Sad about them, too."</p> + +<p>"Well, investigation's over," Kessler smiled at Margaret as he drove +away. "Results, nil. Second honeymoon, anyone? We've got nothing to +keep us now. How do we get to the highway from here?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear," Margaret murmured, still bemused by Miss Schmitt. "But +wasn't it a shame they never got married? He was such an unhappy man. +She might have brought him out of it."</p> + +<p>"I doubt that," Kessler said, adjusting the sun blind against the +evening glare of the sun.</p> + +<p>"Like she said, he was a hard luck artist. It's a personality type, it +doesn't change."</p> + +<p>"What?" Kessler asked, maneuvering a corner in heavy traffic.</p> + +<p>"Accident prone. You know, everything happened to him. Like those +mushrooms he got sick on just before he left home; falling off the +porch. No wonder he didn't want to leave home."</p> + +<p>They drove in silence for some time, Kessler intent on the evening +flood of traffic, Margaret almost drowsing in the evening sunlight and +the cool of the breeze in her hair. When Kessler pulled up at a drug +store she said, "What?" sleepily.</p> + +<p>"Phone call I have to make. You wait here," he said. She nodded.</p> + +<p>Kessler got through to Senator Brogan's office quickly. "Hello, Miss +Persons? I'm glad you're still there. This is Bob Kessler. Do you +have any idea where the senator is now? Good, would you put me through +to him?"</p> + +<p>Brogan sounded anything but sleepy. "Yes Bob? Finally wind it up?"</p> + +<p>"I think maybe I have," Kessler said. "I've seen Miss Schmitt."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Spencer's old flame? And what did you learn?"</p> + +<p>When Kessler was finished telling him there was a long pause. "Are you +still there, George?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Brogan's voice was heavy. "Yes, Bob, I'm still here. Where are you +calling from? A public phone? Well, I think maybe you'd better come up +here. We have more to say than you have dimes and it won't hurt to +keep this to ourselves if we can—or till we're sure. Better bring +your complete files. Good. One point, though! Did anything I said this +afternoon help? I wondered. I couldn't really believe it myself. If +you'd said something, I wouldn't have felt I was going crazy. I've +been sitting here wondering if I should see a head doctor."</p> + +<p>Margaret smiled philosophically when Kessler told her he had to go +back to see Brogan. "Some second honeymoon," she complained. "Well, +anyway, what about that drink and a steak dinner. I'll get us a hotel +room. Maybe tomorrow, like I always say."</p> + +<hr style="width: 45%;" /> + +<p>It was nearly ten o'clock when Kessler and Brogan met Margaret at the +hotel dining room. "It's about time!" she declared. "I'm starving. +Hello there, George. What are you doing to my husband? Or vice versa? +We were going to go on a second honeymoon and now he has that +fiend-for-work look in his eye!"</p> + +<p>"My dear Margaret," Brogan said, holding her hand and smiling +gallantly, "I must deeply apologize for keeping Bob. And I'm almost +frightened to say that it looks as though it will be for some time +longer. We will have to go back after dinner and it may be some days +before either of us has much free time."</p> + +<p>Margaret looked at them suspiciously, with the brightness in her eye +that came from her first martini. "What are you two up to now? Some of +this top secret stuff? I might know! I can't get away from it! Never +mind, I'll worm it out of Bob when I get him alone. If that ever +happens!"</p> + +<p>They carefully avoided any further reference to the investigation +until they were halfway through dinner in the nearly deserted dining +room. Margaret, mellowed by a second martini and all of her steak +which she ate, sighed. "Poor Miss Schmitt," she said. "I've been +feeling sorry for her all evening when I haven't been feeling sorry +for myself."</p> + +<p>"Why Miss Schmitt?" Kessler asked, chewing.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I shouldn't, I know. Bob Spencer would probably have been a worse +husband than you are. But at least I'm glad I went along with you to +visit her. I settled something that's been bothering me."</p> + +<p>"What was that, dear?" Kessler asked, raising a juicy morsel of steak +to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Why, that he was accident prone."</p> + +<p>Kessler lowered his fork. "Yes, you mentioned that before," he said +carefully. "I was telling George about it. But why did you think he +might be?"</p> + +<p>Margaret looked at their startled faces. She fluttered her hands. +"Well, everyone else on the plane was."</p> + +<p>The three of them stared at each other. "Did I say something wrong?" +she asked nervously. "Well, they were, you know! The stewardesses both +had broken their legs. And the flight engineer got a black eye walking +into a door. You remember, Bob, you couldn't be sure how it happened, +but that must have been it. Even the pilot had cut himself shaving. +That very morning!"</p> + +<p>Kessler and Brogan had stopped eating and were watching her intently. +"Stop staring," she said indignantly. "You're making me nervous. +What's wrong?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, dear," Kessler said quietly. "It's very interesting. Go on."</p> + +<p>She looked at him suspiciously. "Well, when it comes to the +passengers! What do you mean? You know all this!"</p> + +<p>"Go on," Brogan said.</p> + +<p>"Well, one man was even in another plane crash before. I forget his +name."</p> + +<p>"Pearlow," Kessler murmured.</p> + +<p>"Pearlow, yes. And Dr. Pollitt who was blinded in an accident. I don't +really know about your friend Miss Bennett, senator."</p> + +<p>Brogan nodded. "She qualifies."</p> + +<p>"And the little girl, Barbara? Who had the automobile accident? The +veteran? Prewitt, who accidentally killed his brother? At least two of +those people were going to psychiatrists. Well, Mr. Spencer had me +worried because I didn't know if the mushrooms qualified him as +accident prone. Then, of course, when I found out about him definitely +I figured the Valentes qualified, too, with the mumps. The man who +broke his fingernail! Oh, just about everybody I think."</p> + +<p>Kessler and Brogan glanced at each other. Brogan nodded. "Just about +everybody," he said. "And all on the same plane. It's something that +would happen once in ten thousand times. Like being dealt a solid suit +in bridge. But it can happen. It seems to have happened this time. And +I think maybe it's happened before. Maybe one person who was not +accident prone could make the difference. But when I think about a +plane taking off with those particular seventy-three people aboard it +really scares me."</p> + +<p>Margaret looked from Brogan to Kessler, confused. Kessler put his hand +over hers on the table cloth and gripped it tightly. "Darling," he +said, "when we have finished our coffee, George and I are going back +to his office and I think maybe you'd better come along with us. We +have a lot of thinking to do, the three of us, and we could use a +feminine touch."</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Straw, by William J. Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST STRAW *** + +***** This file should be named 30746-h.htm or 30746-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/4/30746/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Last Straw + +Author: William J. Smith + +Illustrator: George Schelling + +Release Date: December 23, 2009 [EBook #30746] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST STRAW *** + + + + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from Analog Science Fact & Fiction September + 1963. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. + + + THE LAST STRAW + + + Some hypotheses are rational-- + if not logical--but, + by their nature, + aren't exactly open + to controlled experiment! + + + by WILLIAM J. SMITH + + + ILLUSTRATED BY GEORGE SCHELLING + + * * * * * + + + + +"There's absolutely nothing we can pin it down to with any real +certainty," Kessler said. "No mechanical defects that we're sure of, +no sabotage we can put our finger on, no murder or suicide schemes, +nothing! We've put that plane back together so perfectly that it could +almost fly again! We've got dossiers an inch thick on practically +everybody who was aboard, crew and passengers. We've done six months' +work and we don't have one single positive answer. The newspapers were +yelling about the number of insurance policies issued for the flight +but none of them looks really phony." + +He stood at the huge window of Senator Brogan's office, looking out at +the shimmering sunlight on one of Washington's green malls. Over the +treetops he could catch a glimpse of the Capitol dome. + +Brogan sat comfortably in the big chair behind his desk. "But weren't +there an unusually large number of policies issued?" he asked. His big +hands toyed with a little silver airplane propeller, a souvenir of his +long-standing interest in the problems of commercial aviation. "You +know," he went on, leaning forward on his elbows and replacing the +propeller neatly on the base of his fountain pen stand, "this is a +matter of interest to me in more than an official sense. Eileen +Bennett was one of my wife's best friends. She was on her way to +Washington to visit us after a stopover in New York." + +Kessler nodded. "I know that's one of the reasons you wanted to +compare notes." He stood with his back to the window now, a stocky man +with a jaw to match and short-cropped graying hair. "The newspapers +were quite right, of course. There were an unusually large number of +insurance policies issued for the flight but nearly all were for the +minimum amount." + +"What about Pearlow?" + +Kessler frowned. "Pearlow had reason to be nervous. You know he +survived a crash just three years ago. But anyway, the fact remains +that we've looked into the backgrounds of every one of those people. +None of them was facing any real financial difficulties!" + +"That sounds odd in itself," George Brogan said, smiling slightly. + +Kessler ran his hand over his hair and returned to sit in a leather chair +beside the senator's desk. He smiled in response. "I know it sounds odd +but it's true. Their troubles were all run-of-the-mill--getting taxes +paid, the mortgage, a new car, a long-overdue raise in salary--that sort +of thing. Nothing that anybody in his right mind would kill or commit +suicide over." + +Brogan lifted a bushy eyebrow in question. "Maybe you've put your +finger on it there?" + +Kessler ticked off his reply, holding up one hand. "One former mental +patient, pronounced cured ten years ago and apparently perfectly +normal; a well-established businessman; a used-car dealer; three +currently under psychoanalysis; a college girl twenty-one; a housewife +with four children; an injured veteran just out of service. None +showed any violent tendencies according to their doctors." + +"Any criminals?" + +Kessler regarded him wryly from beneath his eyebrows. "Don't kid me, +senator. I know you've done your own investigation on this. But to +answer your question: Evan Prewitt's your man--only one who could +qualify. Tried on a manslaughter charge for killing his brother-in-law +while they were out hunting. He said it was an accident and the jury +agreed. He was acquitted. True, he had one of the large insurance +policies, but then I'm sure you know Miss Bennett had one, too." + +The senator nodded. "I knew that. But I know very little of Eileen's +financial situation otherwise. Not," he added hastily, "that I would +for a moment suspect Eileen Bennett of harming a fly. She's one person +I could rule out. It would be just like her to fall down the steps +getting off the plane, but as for her planning her own death or anyone +else's, that's out of the question. She was much too scatterbrained. I +hope that's not speaking ill of the dead." + + * * * * * + +Kessler frowned. "You'll forgive me, senator, in that regard, if I +ask you a question? Miss Bennett didn't drink, did she?" + +"Eileen? Heavens, no! Oh, she'd have a drink to be sociable, but it +was usually a sherry and half the time she wouldn't finish that. I +don't suppose you were envisaging the possibility that she highjacked +the plane from four officers and two stewardesses and then wrecked +it?" This time he smiled the broad toothy smile that made him a +favorite with Washington news photographers. + +"Hardly. The thing is, I've gotten so I feel I knew every one of those +seventy-three people personally. You know, I've interviewed almost two +thousand friends and acquaintances of those people and I'm not quite +finished yet, just hoping I'll run across something that makes sense. +I could have told you Miss Bennett's habits with a glass of sherry, +that's why I was a little surprised." + +Senator Brogan shook his head. "Oh, no, I didn't mean to suggest +anything like that. It's just that Eileen was ... well, clumsy is an +unkind word ... unco-ordinated I guess, though she tried to make a +joke of it. She was always bumping into things, spilling her glass of +water and things like that, but not because she had been drinking too +much." + +"As for drinking," Kessler said, "there were quite a few real guzzlers +on the plane. I don't mean that actor, who was notorious. He'd just +lost a part because of his drinking and he was sober for a change. But +it's amazing what you'll turn up about respectable people when you +start investigating." + +"I'm very interested in that aspect, as you may know," Brogan said. +"We periodically get bills which would outlaw drinking aboard planes. +What are your ideas on that subject?" + +"Well, I don't mind a drink aboard a plane myself. Helps me relax. But +I have seen some pretty unpleasant things develop during a flight when +you get a nasty drunk riled up." + +"Did you find any suggestion of that?" + +"Not really. The plane took off from Chicago just after lunch time and +a good many of the people who got on there had had a drink or two, but +there wasn't really enough time to make trouble. The plane had hardly +cleared the runway. All the passengers, except one, had their seat +belts fastened." + +"Now there is something I didn't know! Who was this?" + +"Preston, a lawyer from New Jersey. You know how tentative any +reconstruction of events must be under the circumstances, but we're +pretty sure of this, especially since there was no fire. Preston +apparently broke a fingernail trying to fasten his seat belt and one +of the stewardesses had brought him a little first-aid kit. He had +torn open a Band-Aid and was trying to fasten it around his finger. +Obviously this was just before the crash." + +"But how do you know he did it with the seat belt?" + +"Guesswork, except that it wasn't fastened and we think maybe it just +got overlooked after he hurt himself." + +"Was he one of the drinkers?" + +"No, not at all. Never touched it. In point of fact, nobody was really +drunk at the time of the take-off. The flight engineer however had had +two drinks at lunch." + +Brogan raised his eyebrows. "You _were_ thorough. You're sure?" + +Kessler nodded. "Brown was a problem drinker though it didn't seem to +interfere with his work. The two drinks are all he had that day so far +as we can determine. He showed up for lunch at a girl friend's +apartment with a black eye. Made some joke about walking into a door +and wouldn't tell her anything else about it. She gave him the drinks +at his request, and a big lunch, and put a little makeup on his eye +because he'd been pulled from a flight a few months before when he +showed up looking as though he'd been in a scrap." + +"How did he really get the black eye?" + +"There you've got me. Maybe he was telling his girl friend the truth. +He had an estranged wife, incidentally, but she hadn't seen him for +years. Good riddance, she said." + +Senator Brogan picked up the propeller again and rolled it +reflectively between his palms. He looked intently at Kessler. +"Nothing seems really conclusive, does it? You know some of the wild +rumors that have been going around about this crash?" Kessler nodded +and started to speak. Brogan held up his hand. "Let me finish. You +know and I know--or at least we think we do--that there's nothing to +most of these rumors. And I'm not even talking about the wilder ones, +like the little people from outer space who are knocking our airplanes +down without leaving a trace. You get three or four of these +unexplainable accidents and somebody is sure to come up with a really +crackpot idea. The general public will not be convinced that this sort +of thing can happen with no discoverable reason. Usually we have no +way of reconstructing what happened before the accident. Just a couple +of unintelligible remarks on the radio, as there were here, and then +everyone is dead, the plane is totally demolished, and witnesses on +the ground come up with ten different hysterical accounts--if there +are any witnesses at all!" + +"But this was a little different, after all, senator," Kessler +interjected. + +Brogan held up his hand again. "Just let me have my say. You know we +folks down here in Washington always have a lot to say and we hate +being interrupted." He smiled briefly. "This sort of thing has been +going on in aviation history for the last fifty years--these +unexplained accidents--and there's nothing especially new about this +last one. You're shaking your head, but let me continue. One of the +reasons they are now getting so much attention is that with the big +jets the loss of life is apt to be pretty appalling when an accident +does happen, but the actual number of accidents per flight--as you +well know--is far fewer than it used to be and has been going down +steadily over the years." + +Kessler, slumped deep in his chair, fingers arced together before him, +stared morosely but said nothing. "Secondly," Brogan went on, "it is +not true that these accidents are happening more to American planes +than foreign ones. Again it is chiefly that we are scheduling more and +more flights. On the law of averages we are doing very well. You know +how many crashes the foreign carriers have chalked up in the last +year. And just about the same proportion are these so-called +unexplainable crashes. It's not that they are unexplainable! It's +simply that we don't have the information that would explain them! The +very circumstances preclude that. Am I making any sense?" + +Kessler nodded. "Yes, senator, I suppose you are, but it doesn't make +me any happier. I want to find out why and stop them." + +"So do I, I assure you. But let me finish briefly. Among the other +wild rumors are suggestions that we are being sabotaged by foreign +agents or by their tools. Well now, I'd be the last one in the +world--you know my record--to deny the possibility of some folks doing +this if they thought they could get away with it. If I thought for one +moment--or if I thought that you thought for one moment--that there +was some international sabotage going on here, I'd say go on with your +investigation till you get the answer!" + +Brogan flung himself back dramatically in his big chair, throwing out +his arms. "Meanwhile, what are you accomplishing? You've spent--and I +happen to know this for a fact--almost a million dollars on this +investigation. By your own account you have personally talked to two +thousand people about it! You have kept this accident in the public +eye and given it far greater importance than it deserves--through no +malicious fault of your own, to be sure! But what have you got? +Nothing. Exactly what I came up with. Nothing. Tell me, for example, +where you got with the political possibilities of this thing. I know +you didn't overlook it!" + +Kessler smiled wearily. "Just about everything you say is true, +George. Only, you see, I would probably never have ended up running +this investigation if I were the sort of person that comes up with a +question mark for an answer. I said 'human error' in my report, but +that doesn't satisfy me. I want to know what human error. I don't +think anything happens without a reason. Somehow I feel that it's all +there, the answer, in those couple of million details we've pieced +together about the plane and the crew and the passengers and it's +staring me in the face if I could only see it." + +"I agree with you." Brogan raised his hand again in his imperious +gesture then dropped it to the desk. "No. I asked to have my say. Now +you have yours." He sat patiently. + + * * * * * + +Kessler grinned. "Thanks, senator. As for the political sabotage +possibilities, you've undoubtedly seen a copy of my confidential +report. Three of the passengers had definite subversive connections in +the past. I know, I'm not trying to make much of this. Their +associations all date back to the 1930s and one of them was just a +girl flirting with a Communist fellow student, but we didn't want to +overlook any possibilities. Pearlow, on the other hand, was Russian +born. He's the one who barely survived another airline crash three +years ago." + +"Pearlow was perfectly loyal. Just an ironic coincidence, that's all. +I know the papers tried to make something out of it but I find it hard +to believe that you took it seriously. As for Stepowski, he testified +openly about his past here in Washington five years ago." + +"I know. I even know that Stepowski's favorite television program was +'I Led Three Lives.' I tell you there's very little I don't know about +anybody who was aboard, with one possible exception." + +Brogan was alert. "Who's this?" + +"Oh, it's no great mystery, senator. Robert J. Spencer, of Keokuk, +Iowa. We know quite a bit about him, actually, but it's all third +hand. He was a retired court stenographer, seventy-three years old, +going to New York for his sister's funeral at the time of the crash. +He boarded the plane at Chicago. He took a train to Chicago because he +didn't like to fly, then he got sick there, apparently from some +mushrooms he picked at home and had for lunch before he left. He had +to lay over in Chicago for a day and then he got on the plane at the +last minute so he wouldn't miss the funeral." + +"Sounds to me as though you knew everything about him." + +"Funny thing, though," said Kessler, "I have yet to speak to a single +person who ever exchanged ten words with Robert J. Spencer. He lived +alone, a complete recluse. Neighbors never saw him. Probably his +sister would have been able to tell me something about him but she's +dead. Actually, while I'm here in Washington I'm going to stop by and +see an old acquaintance of his, a Miss Valeria Schmitt. They worked +together as court stenographers in Iowa City more than twenty-five +years ago. They were engaged but they never married. She moved here +during World War II and they never saw much of each other after that." +He shrugged. "I know it's a long shot, but I don't want to miss a +chance." + +Senator Brogan shook his head, smiling. "I have to admire you, +Kessler. But may I express some little reservation? Do you really +think looking up an acquaintance of Mr. Spencer's from twenty-five +years ago is going to help materially in solving the mystery of a +plane crash that occurred just last February? Or that the taxpayers +could be very happy at this sort of expenditure of their money?" + +Kessler flushed darkly and leaned forward in his chair, clasping his +hands. "Senator," he said, his voice cracking a little, "the taxpayers +are not spending a cent currently on this investigation. My staff has +been dismissed or returned to their regular duties. I went off the +payroll three weeks ago. My final report has been submitted. I'm doing +this at my own expense because I feel that I have to. I'm not +satisfied. There has to be an answer!" + + * * * * * + +Brogan turned the emotion away from himself with professional skill. +"Bob, look," he said, addressing Kessler by his given name for the +first time during their interview, "I'm not criticizing you personally +for a second. And that's not why I asked you to stop by. I asked you +to come over and see me as a favor. You're not working for me and I +don't pretend to be in any position of authority as far as your +investigation goes. I asked you here because I'm deeply concerned +myself about these accidents and I wanted to know if you could +enlighten me in any way. May I say one personal thing though? Aren't +you getting emotionally involved in this?" + +"Of course I'm emotionally involved!" Kessler burst out. "I'm sorry, +George." He passed his hand over his face and went on in a lower +voice. "It's just that I've been eating, breathing, sleeping, dreaming +this thing for the last six months. I feel as though I knew everyone +of those seventy-three people personally. The Patterson girl, who +looked as though she might be going to have a little good luck for a +change. I even know that the pilot nicked himself shaving that +morning. His friends called him Mike even though his name was Edward. +He had a fight with his wife the night before. She wanted to eat out +and he wanted to stay home. He was working with this crew for the +first time though they all knew each other very well." + +"Really?" Brogan perked up. "I suppose I knew that. Is it possibly +significant?" + +"Possibly, possibly. Everything is possibly significant but nothing +really adds up. The routines were all standard, the four men were all +vets. Aside from the pilot they had all worked together for years, off +and on." + +"Still, couldn't wires have gotten crossed as a result of some +misunderstanding with a new pilot aboard?" + +"Sure they could. What with the flight engineer being a souse and the +pilot new to the crew and the co-pilot just back after a two-month +layoff because of a ski accident. 'Human error,' that's what I said." + +"Ski accident? I thought it was the stewardess that had the ski +accident? I'm not going to trip you up in your own bailiwick now, am +I?" + +"Stewardess?" Kessler frowned. "You must be mistaken, senator." + +"I felt quite sure," Brogan said musingly. + +"I know your reputation for a fact, senator," Kessler said +uncomfortably, "but a stewardess with a ski accident. Oh! Oh, yes. +But not recent. That was Miss Sosnak, but it was almost a year before. +The newspaper accounts got garbled. Both she and the other stewardess, +Miss Prentiss, were ski enthusiasts. They were thinking about spending +the weekend at Stowe after they got to New York, even though they had +both broken ankles previously. Their friends in San Francisco were +joking with them about it before they left. They gave Miss Sosnak a +doll with a cast on its leg as a gag. The doll was found in the +wreckage. Apparently Miss Sosnak had given it to the little girl who +was killed on the flight, Barbara Patterson, who actually had a cast +on her leg at the time. She had fallen and hurt herself a few days +before." + + * * * * * + +A buzzer on Senator Brogan's desk hummed two short discreet hums. +Brogan made no attempt to answer it. He stood and came around the +desk, putting his hand on Kessler's shoulder. "Don't get up just yet," +he said. "My secretary buzzes me every fifteen minutes in case I want +to show my constituents how busy I am. If there's anyone waiting, let +them wait. There's just a little bit more I'd like to say." He sat in +the wide embrasure of the window and leaned forward on a crossed knee. +He looked the picture of negligence but he was obviously pausing to +choose his words with care. Kessler shifted his chair to face him. + +"I won't mince words," Brogan said, "because I think we understand +each other. We always have. Thanks to your splendid investigation, and +my only little efforts perhaps, we know more about the circumstances +of this crash than any other in aviation history. I had exactly your +feeling that the answer ought to be there. But I don't see it and you +don't see it. We know absolutely everything but one thing. We don't +know what caused it. And we're never going to know that. I really +think you are doing the aviation industry, yes and the country itself, +a real injury by going on. I won't say what I think you're doing to +yourself because it will sound like a sentimental appeal and you've +known me too long not to know I'm pretty hard-headed." + +"The investigation is over," Kessler said sullenly. + +"Yes, I know, officially, but you've just told me you're going on with +it personally." + +"It's one last remote chance." + +"Well, tell me this, Bob, if this last remote chance doesn't work out, +will you call it quits and not start in on another last remote chance? +Will you and Margaret get on up to that place of yours in Maine and +take a good long vacation?" + +Kessler smiled wryly. "Margaret has ideas of her own along that line. +She's followed through on this with me all the way but she came down +to Washington to meet me today and she says she's going to drag me off +when I'm through here." + +Brogan smiled his famous smile. "Good girl, Margaret. If she's here +and has a leash on you, I know I don't have anything to worry about. +There's nothing I admire more than a woman who has a mind and uses it. +I'll tell you something else," he said, standing and permitting +Kessler to rise this time. "I was truly sorry about Eileen Bennett's +death on this plane, but Eileen was getting along like me. Sarah +Pollitt's was the really tragic case, to have accomplished so much so +young and with that fearful handicap! From childhood, too, wasn't it?" + +[Illustration] + +"Actually, she was about seventeen. Someone threw a firecracker in a +car in which she was riding, but she could see partially with one +eye." + +Brogan nodded. "But a beautiful woman, for all that. And then to have +achieved so much. I understand nothing about chemistry but I know her +international repute. She had just become head of the chemistry +department at Wellesley, hadn't she?" + +"Radcliffe." + +Brogan laughed loudly. "I might have known I couldn't trip you up. But +tell me this," he added slyly, "did you know that Dr. Pollitt had once +been a good friend of Bergmann?" + +"Our former Commie on the plane? Yes, as a matter of fact, we came +across that quite accidentally. You did a good job, senator." + +"Well, you know we have some sources not generally accessible." + +"Then you undoubtedly found out that though Sarah Pollitt and friend +Bergmann knew each other well at one time she dropped him like a hot +cake when he suggested she do a little undercover work for the +Commies. Their being on the same plane was the sheerest coincidence." + +Brogan stood with his hand on the door with led to the corridor. He +nodded. "That was a little hard to take, wasn't it? We really thought +we had something there for a while." He sighed. "It's like the whole +thing, Bob, irrational and unexplainable. And believe me, I hope I +haven't sounded critical of the job you did. I hope we can call on you +whenever we need really expert advice?" + +"Of course, senator, though I don't feel much like an expert on +anything right now." + +"You did your best, Bob." He patted him on the shoulder in farewell. + + * * * * * + +Kessler walked down a long marble corridor to a rotunda. His wife +waved to him from across a staircase. She looked pert and cool and +girlish in her ice-blue suit and perky hat. "Here, darling! Oh, you +look so discouraged! Did George give you a hard time? He can be a +brute when he wants to." + +"Not really. He thinks I ought to call it quits." + +"And don't you think so, dear?" she asked, taking his arm as they +started down the stairs. + +"Who me?" He grinned with sudden boyishness. "You know me. Never say +die! If I thought we ought to give it up would I be trying to find +this old bag Valeria Schmitt or whatever her name is? Brogan was +right, that's just about as farfetched a notion as has come down the +pike in a long time." + +"Well, it may be farfetched, but she's not an old bag. I called her to +make sure she'd be at home. I didn't know how long you'd take in +there. She was very excited that you were coming to see her." + +"Did she know who I was?" + +"Of course, even aside from the letters. She's been following the +investigation very carefully. She didn't seem to think it was at all +curious that you wanted to see her because she knew someone +twenty-five years ago." + +Kessler laughed as they stepped out into the hot sunlight. "Well, if +she's not a bag she's a bat. The more I think about it the crazier it +seems. Suppose we get it over with now and start for Maine tonight. +We'll be all set to go." + +"Good! Good! That's the way I like to hear you talk. We'll make it a +second honeymoon." + +Margaret was still musing dreamily when they finally got to the car +and started off in the direction of Silver Spring, where Valeria +Schmitt lived in maiden retirement. "It will be just wonderful, dear," +she said and then sighed. "Oh, but it reminds me of those poor +Valentes, going off on their honeymoon." + +"Now, now. I'm the one who's supposed to be obsessed with the crash, +not you." + +"Oh, but that was so sad. He was so handsome. And she was a pretty +little thing, too, if you could tell from the wedding pictures. And +then having postponed the wedding twice, too! It seems just like some +fate was dogging them." + +Kessler chuckled. "I don't think mumps really qualifies as an evil +fate." + +"No, but can you imagine! First him and then her! If it had been only +one or the other they would both be alive and happy today." + +"Alive anyway. I talked to some of his friends who suggested he was a +mean one even before he had mumps." He smiled at his wife. "Even if he +was good-looking. And now will you look out for Miss Schmitt's number +before I pile us up and we miss out on our second honeymoon?" + + * * * * * + +Miss Schmitt proved to look as well as sound much younger than Kessler +knew her to be, a bright and plump little woman with very very blond +hair tightly curled. Margaret had come along into her little apartment +without much urging. Miss Schmitt had apparently been expecting both +of them because she had three flower-painted glasses out for lemonade. + +"I suppose I'm old-fashioned," she was saying cheerfully before they +were even settled, "but I don't hold by cocktails. Nothing more +cooling than good old lemonade. Real lemons, too, not this bottled +stuff. You know what they say--you can take them out of the country +but you can't take the country out of them!" She laughed breathlessly. +"I've been living in the big city for twenty-five years now but I'm +still an Ioway girl. Get back almost every year, too, still perfectly +at home there. I'll be sitting out on the veranda next month drinking +lemonade and shooing flies like I'd never been away!" She laughed her +breathless laugh again. + +Margaret was obviously enjoying herself as much as Valeria Schmitt. +Even Kessler was relaxed now, leaning back in the choice chair by the +window with his collar pulled open. His search _had_ been a neurotic +one, he decided, as he listened to Miss Schmitt's pleasant chatter. He +realized he would learn nothing here, but now he was not angry even +with himself. + +Miss Schmitt had taken the first opportunity to explain that she was a +lot younger than her old boy friend, who had died in the crash at the +age of seventy-three. "Of course my family were against Bob Spencer +for that reason, too. He was almost fifteen years older than me." +Kessler suppressed a smile. He knew the difference in age was more +like ten years, but Miss Schmitt was secure in her blond, plump good +cheer. "It's a little too much," she went on, "fifteen years, but then +we never really did hit it off. Never really broke off, either." She +held up her hand, displaying a ring. "See. Just got it out a few +months ago. Haven't worn it for I don't know how many years. When I +left Iowa City--" + +"I thought it was Keokuk?" Margaret interrupted. She was perfectly at +home with Valeria as she sipped her lemonade. + +"No, honey." It was girl-talk now and Kessler was happy to let it go +on, feeling suddenly very tired. "We worked together as stenographers +in Iowa City. I was from right near there, but Bob was from Keokuk. +That's where he retired to. Anyway I got this job in Washington during +the war--World War II, that is--and I went back pretty often and saw +Bob but I was young and foolish at the time and kept putting off and +putting off the wedding and then it just never did happen. I offered +Bob his ring back but he wouldn't hear of it. Said maybe it would +still work out for us. Course by this time I knew it never would." + +"Oh, I'm so sorry." Kessler caught the note of real sincerity in +Margaret's voice. "That seems too bad." + +"Oh, why be sorry?" Valeria asked gaily. "I'm not. Bob was real sweet +in his way but he was a real stick-in-the-mud even when I first met +him." + +"I understand he was actually a recluse in his later years," Kessler +said. + +"Later years! Lord, he was a recluse when he was thirty-five. Worried +about everything. I never regret it. My friends used to say I was +snapping him out of it but I could never see much sign of it. Wore +gloves all the time to protect his hands and so he wouldn't get any +germs. It must have been the lemonade I was making a little while +ago, Mrs. Kessler, when you called, reminded me of one time when he +was visiting me back in Iowa. Just like I said, we were sitting on the +veranda drinking lemonade I do believe and swatting flies and Bob was +laughing and talking along with everyone else. Well, he was in a +rocker just like this one and I gave him the fly swatter because he +was laughing at me and I said, 'O.K., mister, you go ahead and try to +hit one if you're so smart.' And he gave a great big swing, laughing, +and that rocker went right over the edge of the veranda!" She laughed +her breathless laugh till she had to dab at her eyes. + +Kessler and Margaret smiled at her innocent memories. Kessler +suppressed a yawn. "Oh, my," Margaret said, "the poor man! How +embarrassing if he was that shy." + +Miss Schmitt examined her lacy handkerchief in sadly smiling +recollection. "I shouldn't laugh now," she said, "but it was so funny. +He didn't think so, of course! He stomped right out of the yard +without a word. I wouldn't have thought it was funny then if I'd known +how bad he hurt himself. He was laid up for about three weeks. I guess +that was the beginning of the end for us. Bob said every time he went +out something terrible happened to him. Poor fellow. He was right at +that. Just a bad luck artist." + + * * * * * + +Miss Schmitt was prepared to reminisce indefinitely. Kessler decided +he had better come to the point. "I don't suppose, Miss Schmitt," he +asked, "that you and Mr. Spencer ever discussed politics?" + +She shrugged. "Why, yes, I guess we did a little, being among +politicians in court and all. We were both good solid Republicans +though, so we didn't have much to say back in those days. I voted for +Roosevelt in 1940 but Bob didn't mind." + +"This may sound farfetched, Miss Schmitt, but to your knowledge was +Mr. Spencer ever interested in Communism?" + +"Bob?" she asked incredulously. "Bob interested in Communism? We +didn't even know what Communism was out there. Never! You can count +that out, mister." + +"I'm sure we can," Kessler said. "Did he drink?" + +"Not a drop! I wouldn't have put up with that myself." + +"Would you ever have thought he was suicidally inclined?" + +She thought about this one. "You mean he might have put a bomb on the +plane? Like that fellow did a few years ago?" She shook her head +slowly. "I can't believe Bob would kill anybody else just to kill +himself. What would be the point?" + +"Exactly. He left no one behind him. Didn't even take out an insurance +policy. But, of course, people sometimes do crazy things." + +Miss Schmitt's plump little face was silent and reflective. "Bob was +an odd one. And, of course, I haven't seen him for years but I got a +Christmas card and a little note every single year and he always +seemed perfectly sane to me. As for killing himself or anybody else, +I'd say he was much too timid a man for that. God forgive me if I'm +being cruel to an old friend who's gone now, but he was afraid to step +outside the house. I don't know how he got to work. He was always +getting sick or getting hurt and staying home for weeks. I think he +welcomed sickness just so he could hide at home safe." There were +tears of another sort in Miss Schmitt's eyes now. Kessler thought he +detected a brightness in his wife's eyes. "No," Miss Schmitt said, +"Bob was afraid of life. Just plumb scared." She refused to let the +tears flow. "Oh, but I'm being a terrible hostess! I have so few +visitors now. How about some more lemonade?" + +Margaret flicked a glance at her husband and gave him the floor. +"You've been a wonderful hostess," Kessler said, rising, "and I want +to thank you for being good enough to talk to us." + +"Well, I'm afraid I haven't been much help," she said, rising to +flutter over the glasses. + +"That's not your fault," Kessler said. "As you know, we haven't come +up with an answer on this investigation, but at least they can't say I +didn't try." + + * * * * * + +Miss Schmitt waved to them from the window of her apartment as they +got in their car. "She was sweet, you know," Margaret murmured as she +waved back gaily. "Sad about them, too." + +"Well, investigation's over," Kessler smiled at Margaret as he drove +away. "Results, nil. Second honeymoon, anyone? We've got nothing to +keep us now. How do we get to the highway from here?" + +"Yes, dear," Margaret murmured, still bemused by Miss Schmitt. "But +wasn't it a shame they never got married? He was such an unhappy man. +She might have brought him out of it." + +"I doubt that," Kessler said, adjusting the sun blind against the +evening glare of the sun. + +"Like she said, he was a hard luck artist. It's a personality type, it +doesn't change." + +"What?" Kessler asked, maneuvering a corner in heavy traffic. + +"Accident prone. You know, everything happened to him. Like those +mushrooms he got sick on just before he left home; falling off the +porch. No wonder he didn't want to leave home." + +They drove in silence for some time, Kessler intent on the evening +flood of traffic, Margaret almost drowsing in the evening sunlight and +the cool of the breeze in her hair. When Kessler pulled up at a drug +store she said, "What?" sleepily. + +"Phone call I have to make. You wait here," he said. She nodded. + +Kessler got through to Senator Brogan's office quickly. "Hello, Miss +Persons? I'm glad you're still there. This is Bob Kessler. Do you +have any idea where the senator is now? Good, would you put me through +to him?" + +Brogan sounded anything but sleepy. "Yes Bob? Finally wind it up?" + +"I think maybe I have," Kessler said. "I've seen Miss Schmitt." + +"Ah, Spencer's old flame? And what did you learn?" + +When Kessler was finished telling him there was a long pause. "Are you +still there, George?" he asked. + +Brogan's voice was heavy. "Yes, Bob, I'm still here. Where are you +calling from? A public phone? Well, I think maybe you'd better come up +here. We have more to say than you have dimes and it won't hurt to +keep this to ourselves if we can--or till we're sure. Better bring +your complete files. Good. One point, though! Did anything I said this +afternoon help? I wondered. I couldn't really believe it myself. If +you'd said something, I wouldn't have felt I was going crazy. I've +been sitting here wondering if I should see a head doctor." + +Margaret smiled philosophically when Kessler told her he had to go +back to see Brogan. "Some second honeymoon," she complained. "Well, +anyway, what about that drink and a steak dinner. I'll get us a hotel +room. Maybe tomorrow, like I always say." + + * * * * * + +It was nearly ten o'clock when Kessler and Brogan met Margaret at the +hotel dining room. "It's about time!" she declared. "I'm starving. +Hello there, George. What are you doing to my husband? Or vice versa? +We were going to go on a second honeymoon and now he has that +fiend-for-work look in his eye!" + +"My dear Margaret," Brogan said, holding her hand and smiling +gallantly, "I must deeply apologize for keeping Bob. And I'm almost +frightened to say that it looks as though it will be for some time +longer. We will have to go back after dinner and it may be some days +before either of us has much free time." + +Margaret looked at them suspiciously, with the brightness in her eye +that came from her first martini. "What are you two up to now? Some of +this top secret stuff? I might know! I can't get away from it! Never +mind, I'll worm it out of Bob when I get him alone. If that ever +happens!" + +They carefully avoided any further reference to the investigation +until they were halfway through dinner in the nearly deserted dining +room. Margaret, mellowed by a second martini and all of her steak +which she ate, sighed. "Poor Miss Schmitt," she said. "I've been +feeling sorry for her all evening when I haven't been feeling sorry +for myself." + +"Why Miss Schmitt?" Kessler asked, chewing. + +"Oh, I shouldn't, I know. Bob Spencer would probably have been a worse +husband than you are. But at least I'm glad I went along with you to +visit her. I settled something that's been bothering me." + +"What was that, dear?" Kessler asked, raising a juicy morsel of steak +to his lips. + +"Why, that he was accident prone." + +Kessler lowered his fork. "Yes, you mentioned that before," he said +carefully. "I was telling George about it. But why did you think he +might be?" + +Margaret looked at their startled faces. She fluttered her hands. +"Well, everyone else on the plane was." + +The three of them stared at each other. "Did I say something wrong?" +she asked nervously. "Well, they were, you know! The stewardesses both +had broken their legs. And the flight engineer got a black eye walking +into a door. You remember, Bob, you couldn't be sure how it happened, +but that must have been it. Even the pilot had cut himself shaving. +That very morning!" + +Kessler and Brogan had stopped eating and were watching her intently. +"Stop staring," she said indignantly. "You're making me nervous. +What's wrong?" + +"Nothing, dear," Kessler said quietly. "It's very interesting. Go on." + +She looked at him suspiciously. "Well, when it comes to the +passengers! What do you mean? You know all this!" + +"Go on," Brogan said. + +"Well, one man was even in another plane crash before. I forget his +name." + +"Pearlow," Kessler murmured. + +"Pearlow, yes. And Dr. Pollitt who was blinded in an accident. I don't +really know about your friend Miss Bennett, senator." + +Brogan nodded. "She qualifies." + +"And the little girl, Barbara? Who had the automobile accident? The +veteran? Prewitt, who accidentally killed his brother? At least two of +those people were going to psychiatrists. Well, Mr. Spencer had me +worried because I didn't know if the mushrooms qualified him as +accident prone. Then, of course, when I found out about him definitely +I figured the Valentes qualified, too, with the mumps. The man who +broke his fingernail! Oh, just about everybody I think." + +Kessler and Brogan glanced at each other. Brogan nodded. "Just about +everybody," he said. "And all on the same plane. It's something that +would happen once in ten thousand times. Like being dealt a solid suit +in bridge. But it can happen. It seems to have happened this time. And +I think maybe it's happened before. Maybe one person who was not +accident prone could make the difference. But when I think about a +plane taking off with those particular seventy-three people aboard it +really scares me." + +Margaret looked from Brogan to Kessler, confused. Kessler put his hand +over hers on the table cloth and gripped it tightly. "Darling," he +said, "when we have finished our coffee, George and I are going back +to his office and I think maybe you'd better come along with us. We +have a lot of thinking to do, the three of us, and we could use a +feminine touch." + + * * * * * + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Last Straw, by William J. Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAST STRAW *** + +***** This file should be named 30746.txt or 30746.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/4/30746/ + +Produced by Sankar Viswanathan, Greg Weeks, and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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